GLENBURN – A neighborhood dispute over a roaming Rottweiler drew neighbors to court Wednesday in support of a man police believed shot at the dog with a BB gun.

Bubba, whose owner calls him “120 pounds of pure muscle,” roams freely at Lucky’s Landing in Glenburn, snarling and charging at residents and their pets, according to several neighbors who live in the area.

Bubba’s owner, Tim Chapman, said his dog is “just a puppy” who stays in his own yard and simply runs to the end of the property to playfully greet those passing by.

An apparent mix-up with the town about the current animal control officer has left residents at Lucky’s Landing frustrated and feeling helpless, according to Sally Rancourt, who said she tried several times over many months to contact the town’s animal control officer to do something about the dog.

Back in June, Larry Thies felt threatened by the dog that he said was running on his property. Thies, who wanted to work in his garden, said he grabbed his BB gun and fired a shot away from the dog, but toward his aluminum pontoon boat.

“I didn’t want to hurt the dog,” he said Wednesday outside the courtroom. “I fired away from it on purpose and fired at the boat because I knew that aluminum would make a bang that I hoped would scare off the dog. And it did.”

Chapman, however, who saw the incident from his boat on Pushaw Pond, called the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department and told them that Thies shot Bubba. Deputy Joshua Tibbetts said he examined the dog and found no sign of an injury, but decided to charge Thies anyway for cruelty to animals.

“I can’t quite believe that I shot at my own boat with a BB gun to scare off a dog and I get charged with this,” Thies said Wednesday.

Bangor attorney Arthur Greif agreed to represent Thies for free, calling the case absurd. Greif criticized the Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office for going forward with it.

“Is this really a case the state of Maine wishes to prosecute?” Greif wrote to District Attorney R. Christopher Almy back in June.

Five minutes before Thies was to stand trial, the District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case because Chapman, the prosecution’s only witness other than the deputy, failed to show up.

Chapman said he was working and couldn’t get away.

Thies, on the other hand, had his own eyewitness who was standing on the shoreline when the incident occurred. Ironically, the eyewitness was Chapman’s brother, Robert Chapman. He went to the courthouse with Thies on Wednesday prepared to testify on Thies’ behalf.

“I love my brother right to death, but this is not at all how this occurred. Larry shot away from the dog and at his boat. It made a dinging sound and Bubba took off out of the yard. That was it. He never came close to shooting that dog,” Robert Chapman said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Bob Stanley, the animal control officer, heard of the situation Wednesday night and immediately contacted Thies and Rancourt and promised to speak to Tim Chapman in a few days.

Bubba is currently on a visit out of state, Tim Chapman said.

“Bob Stanley told me that he will tell him that the dog has to be on a run or a leash,” Rancourt said Thursday. “I only hope he’ll do it because if not, that dog’s going to really hurt someone. It’s just a matter of time.”